Don’t believe the hype – this Android phone won’t support Apple products for long

Despite being in tech news, I don’t follow China’s domestic smartphone market too closely. Many of the phones released there will never reach the US or Canada, unless perhaps they’re imported by diehards, so they’re mostly irrelevant to my audience. Something that caught my eye, though, was news about Vivo’s next book-style foldable, the X Fold 5. A company product manager recently announced that the phone will support a variety of Apple technologies — including the Apple Watch, which is usually locked to iPhone ownership, even if you buy a cellular model.

So what is Vivo promising, and how does this end-run around Apple’s walled garden work? Details are light at the moment, but one thing’s for sure — don’t expect Vivo to get away with this for long unless it knows something we don’t about Apple’s plans.

How does the Vivo X Fold 5 work with Apple products?

A pile of secrets

According to the product manager, Han Boxiao, Apple Watch users will be able to see calls and texts from a paired X Fold 5. Shared imagery suggests that people will be able to answer calls from their Watch, but it’s less clear if you’ll be able to reply to texts. That’s presumably the case — just unconfirmed so far.

Vivo is also promising that health metrics from a Watch can be synced with the company’s health app. Normally, the wearable relies on Apple’s HealthKit framework for syncing with both first- and third-party apps, so there must be a software workaround for extracting HealthKit data.

Beyond the Apple Watch, Vivo is integrating iCloud into the X Fold 5’s file management system. It’s even promising some Continuity-style features for Mac owners, such as remote control, and the ability to treat their phone as an extended display. That second option is particularly interesting, since Apple’s native equivalent — Sidecar — only lets you use an iPad, not an iPhone.

Boxiao lastly mentions support for AirPods. It’s already possible to pair AirPods with Android phones, but in this case Vivo is supposedly delivering “the original smoothness of the Apple ecosystem,” rather than just basic voice and playback functions. Native Apple devices enjoy functions like automatic source switching tied to your Apple Account.

As you may have gathered, Vivo has yet to explain how it’s pulling any of this off. That’s what leads me to think these features will be short-lived, given Apple’s policies and track record.

Related

Does smart tech really add that much to your fitness regimen?

The full answer varies from person to person, but here’s my gym-buff take.

Why the X Fold 5 won’t be Apple-friendly for long

The clock is ticking

For starters, the Apple Watch is meant to be an iPhone halo device, and certainly operates that way. Though people have managed to pair Watches with Android phones in the past — something Vivo’s likely building off of — that process has always been convoluted, limited, and unsupported by Apple. Traditionally, you’ve needed a cellular-equipped Watch, plus an iPhone for initial setup. Even once a Watch is paired with an Android phone, many features may not work, among them SMS messaging and health sync — two things Vivo says it’s bringing to the table. I’m not confident Vivo can deliver on its promises, much less in a way that lets you skip an iPhone entirely.

It’s very unlikely that Vivo has partnered with Apple. The X Fold 5 could launch as soon as the end of June 2025, and yet there was no mention of Android compatibility during Apple’s WWDC 2025 keynote on June 9. The company does tend to downplay its support of Android with some products, such as Beats headphones and Apple Music, but it wouldn’t completely conceal something this significant, especially if the aim was to sell more Apple Watches.

If anything, Apple will probably do all it can to deter Android users from getting rival-supported Watch pairing, since the product keeps people locked into its ecosystem. The Apple Watch is not only tightly integrated with iPhone features in a way other smartwatches aren’t allowed, but creates a sunk-cost dilemma — if you’ve just bought an $800 Apple Watch Ultra 2, you’re probably going to make your next phone upgrade another iPhone to avoid the expense of replacing two devices at once.

Apple might well try to sabotage anything Vivo does that goes against its norms. There’s strong precedent — the best in recent years being Beeper, which in 2023 managed to bring iMessage to Android phones, only for Apple to deliberately break that functionality on its end. To this day, Apple includes many features in iMessage chats that are intended to deter you from switching to Android — or even enjoying group chats with Android users, since some of those features won’t work if an Android user is present.

There may not be much the company can do about the X Fold 5’s iCloud integration. While there aren’t native Android apps for iCloud Drive or Photos, those services can always be accessed via the web — so all Vivo needs is some sort of bridge software that you sign into with your Apple Account.

Related

Not all USB speeds are created equal (and yes, the numbers complicate things)

Confused by the various flavors of USB? So are we sometimes, but there is hard data out there.

Could Vivo get the greenlight anyway?

Some final thoughts

Vivo / Pocket-lint

If there’s any chance of Vivo getting away with its plans, it lies in three things. First is that Vivo is based in China — while Apple has its own presence in the country, it would probably be an uphill battle to get local courts to take action. I’m not that familiar with the Chinese legal system, but I do know that the country is full of products that work around Western intellectual property. My own Chinese-made electric unicycle is based off concepts originally patented by Segway.

Second, there may not be any technical means Apple could use to undermine Vivo’s efforts. It might try updating the HealthKit and iCloud frameworks, or plugging holes in watchOS, but those ideas are purely hypothetical for the moment. It might not even be worth the resources, as far as Apple’s concerned — X Fold 5 users are only going to get crippled versions of the features available to iPhone owners. There’s still a reason to go all-in on the Apple ecosystem, assuming you can afford it.

Lastly, Apple might not want to be seen pushing the matter too hard. It’s already under fire for anti-competitive practices in North America and Europe, including its treatment of the Apple Watch. Broader Android compatibility could even be inevitable some day, no matter how hard the company is willing to fight.

You might also like

Everything you need to know about PEVs, or personal electric vehicles

You can use PEVs like e-bikes and scooters to explore, run errands, or speed up your commute.